Former captain of the Costa Concordia has been lecturing on "managing
situations of crisis and panic" at a university in Rome

For the terrified passengers of the Costa Concordia who had to inch down the upturned hull of the cruise ship after it ran aground on the island of Giglio, Capt Francesco Schettino may not exactly have struck them as the epitome of calm and composure.

The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans after it ran aground off Isola del Giglio, off the Tuscan coast (AP)

But the former cruise ship commander, who is on trial for multiple manslaughter and for abandoning the ship hours before the evacuation was complete, has been dispensing his wisdom on how to handle "situations of panic and crisis" to students at a distinguished Italian university.

Schettino, who infamously claimed that he did not deliberately abandon the ship but instead "accidentally tripped" into a lifeboat that took him ashore, delivered a lecture to postgraduate students at Rome's La Sapienza University on July 5.

The captain, whose trial will resume in the autumn after a summer break, reportedly used a 3D graphic of the night of the disaster to illustrate how he supposedly managed the chaotic evacuation of the 950ft-long ship, which is twice the size of the Titanic.

He has been accused of dithering over giving the decision to abandon ship and of scrambling ashore while hundreds of traumatised passengers and crew were still trying to evacuate.

"I was invited because I'm an expert," the disgraced skipper told La Nazione newspaper. "I illustrated how situations of panic should be managed, discussing the human element in these situations.

"After all, I've sailed across every sea in the world. I know how one should behave in cases like this, how one needs to act when there are crew members of different nationalities."

Capt Schettino has consistently maintained that it was only thanks to his expertise and quick-thinking that the ship capsized in shallow water just a few hundred yards from the shore, rather than drifting out into deep water.

Had the ship sank there, there could have been hundreds, even thousands of casualties, rather than the 32 people who lost their lives in the tragedy.

"How come that after the attacks on the Twin Towers, people were throwing themselves out of windows, while during the capsizing of the Concordia nobody did anything like that?" he asked, apparently ignoring the fact that many passengers and crew felt compelled to leap into the sea from the listing ship.

Capt Schettino received an "academic recognition" for his lecture, which was part of a course run by the department of forensic psychiatry.

His lawyer, Domenico Pepe, said: "Capt Schettino is a very able person and fully capable of managing difficult situations of panic, as he amply demonstrated (on the night of the disaster)."

But the revelation that he had lectured on crisis management caused widespread indignation.

His participation in the university course "offends the memory of the victims, and the image of Italy in the eyes of the world," a group of centre-Right senators said in a statement of protest. "It seems an insult to assign to him any capabilities of managing panic."

Barbara Saltamartini, a centre-Right MP, said: "This is madness. The only thing Schettino should do is withdraw from public life."

The education minister, Stefania Giannini, said his involvement was "baffling", adding that the capsizing of the Concordia remained "an open wound" for Italy.

"I'm truly indignant about what can happen in this country," said Francesco Verusio, the chief prosecutor in Schettino's trial in Grosseto, Tuscany.

Vincenzo Mastronardi, the academic who organised the lecturer, insisted he had not invited Capt Schettino, but that the skipper had shown up "by surprise" and had spoken for 10 minutes.

But his superiors were quick to distance themselves from the lecture, saying they knew nothing about it until it was revealed by La Nazione on Wednesday.

It was a "shameful" and "irresponsible" idea, said Luigi Frati, the rector of La Sapienza.

"The university distances itself from this serious episode and firmly condemns it."

The Costa Concordia was successfully towed away from Giglio to the port of Genoa this month, where it will be broken up for scrap.

A team of 50 divers and other experts is continuing the search for the remains of the only victim who was never found – Russel Rebello, 32, an Indian waiter working on the ship.